Muffaletta on the Mississippi

The Gumbo Festival was in town but was not dog-friendly so we marched on down like saints past Jackson Square straight to the Mississippi.

When Carlos was just a pup we hopped over the headwaters of the Mississippi River up near Bemidji, Minnesota. Today, a week before his 15th birthday, we’re at the mouth of the Mighty Mississippi.

We can find gumbo all over town, but the only place to get a muffaletta is at Central Grocery on Decatur Street. The line for this sandwich was out the door but worth the wait before we headed down to the river for a picnic.

An Italian immigrant family who opened this store has been serving up these sandwiches for over a hundred years and the little store looks just as it did back then(except for the line out the door). The Sicilian who created this sandwich for the local fishermen watched how they struggled with their lunches. He saw that it was it was difficult for them to eat their meat sandwiches and olives at the same time. So he invented an olive salad which is a variety of chopped olives in olive oil then slathered over the top of pile of meat. All served up on a round sesame loaf.

If street artists lull you to sleep or the crowded sidewalks are impassible, get off the beaten “Big Easy” path, pick up a muffaletta and a couple beers, and head down to the bank of the Mississippi and watch the world go by…by riverboat.